Ruined Castle with Dark Oak

A ruined castle atop a hill in the woods. The forest surrounding the fortress is completely dead. Mold covers the leafless remains of the trees, and shattered pieces of bark hang down like tattered shrouds. The ruin stands on a little hill, surrounded by an old moat. Not much is left of the buildings—just a few collapsed walls and rotting timbers still visible among the withered brushwood. Only the broken keep still looms upward. Dense spiderwebs are spun over everything, from which a quiet chirping can be heard. In the castle courtyard rises a gigantic black oak, its wetly glistening, barkless branches moving with a creaking and groaning. A hate-twisted face stares out from the trunk and lets out an eerie howl. The once-paved courtyard has been literally torn apart by the oak's roots. In the northern part, thick spiderwebs are stretched, between which hang cocoons filled with forest spider eggs. Of the kitchen building up in the courtyard, almost only the outer walls remain. Spiderwebs are spun across the beams. Half-hidden under the rubble is a trapdoor leading down into the cellar. The keep, located up to the right of the courtyard, makes a fairly well-preserved impression from the outside, but not on the inside anymore. Years ago, the roof collapsed and dragged everything down into the depths. Between spiderwebs, a half-buried staircase leads downward. In the charred rubble of the manor house, down to the right of the courtyard, lie the skeletal remains of the castle's last residents. The conquerors slew them and set the building on fire. The wooden southwest tower, down to the left of the courtyard, also fell victim to the flames. Only the three-meter-high foundation is still standing. Inside, there is a hole in the floor. Anyone looking for a way into the cellar here must pass numerous cocooned and stinking animal carcasses. The ruin is surrounded by a moat that was once two paces deep. By now, castle debris, earth, and decades of leaves have fallen into it, and a good portion of the water has seeped away. What remains is a barely half-pace-deep, foul-smelling sludge spanned by the remains of a bridge. Thanks to the fallen stones, the moat is easy to cross in several places. The well in the courtyard is largely smashed and overgrown with thick moss. Wisps of fog hang in the air.